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1.06.2010

double atomic bomb survivor dies at 93

Tsutomu Yamaguchi, the only person officially recognized as a survivor of both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings at the end of World War II, has died. He was 93: Double Atomic bomb survivor dies in Japan.

Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on a business trip for his shipbuilding company on August 6, 1945, when a U.S. B-29 dropped an atomic bomb on the city. He suffered serious burns to his upper body and spent the night in the city.

But that was just a minor setback. Yamaguchi then returned to his hometown of Nagasaki, about 300 kilometers to the southwest, which suffered a second U.S. atomic bomb attack three days later.

Yamaguchi was the only person to be certified by the Japanese government as having been in both cities when they were attacked, although other dual survivors have also been identified.

This man had some extremely good luck or extremely bad luck, depending on how you look at it. How many people can say they survived an atomic bomb blast? 260,000. But how many people can say they survived two?